“We are very interested in the Latin American consumerbecause in almost every measure they have incredible potentialto grow,” he said. “Latin American growth will be very goodthis year, with expansion between four and five percent.”

A China Bull

Chinese demand for consumer goods and commodities willcontinue unabated “for some time,” he said. “People are always asking me if China is going to have asoft or a hard landing, and I’m telling them it’s not going toland.”

Our comment

The whole world is hoping that his China predictions are correct. But don’t get too excited yet… his Templeton fund lost23% in 2011 versus the MSCI Emerging Markets index’s 18% decline. Perhaps he’s been buying too many Argentinean and Nigerian stocks…